For the last 20 years or so my parents have been the senior class sponsors in Decorah. In our early years in town this was a big week for us because homecoming was in full swing. We would spend several weeknights at the fairgrounds decorating the senior float for the parade. The smell of spray paint still reminds me of this time.
My mom was also in charge of the homecoming vote counting for king and queen candidates. The current system is all electronic but it used to be paper ballots that my mom would hand count. I watched. Every year. It was never a secret to me who won. I could keep a secret with the best of them and not a tell a soul for almost two weeks. I think it is a great skill when you work in a business of confidentiality, but that is besides the point. After many years of counting votes and my own knowledge of who people were, my mom and I used to guess who was going to win the king and queen. We had a very methodical system for our guesses. Looking back, this is probably where my love of the human mind and psychology began. So far I haven't figured out a way to predict who will be on the ballot in the first place (aka be the top 5 or 6 from the entire class). Once they are on the ballot, we have a few theories as to how the winners come to be chosen.
1. The kiss of death: It sounds sad and definitely can be. Typically this person does not win the king or queen spot. They have won their class vote but do not win the whole school vote. Maybe they are well known in their class but do not have a lot of contact with underclassmen. There are a few exceptions. No one but the vote counter knows who wins the class. But when you're on the inside, you know who isn't going to win the final round of voting. Generally winning your class leads to not being the king or queen.
2. The tiebreaker/last in: This is my favorite one. My mom always wants even numbers of boys and girls on the court (either 5 or 6 depending on ties and such). Sometimes there is a tie on the girls' side and another boy is brought on the court, or the opposite. Often times (there isn't a tie for the top 5 every year so this one isn't always occurring) this person brought on in the final minute to even the sides becomes the winner. They almost weren't an option on the ballot and now they are the homecoming king or queen. Or, someone who just barely had enough votes to be the fifth one on the ballot becomes the winner. It's like coming from behind in a big game you didn't even know about.
3. Fall involvement: This sounds obvious but the activities you are involved with dictate who votes for you. Band, cross country, football, FFA. What do they all have in common? Activities with a lot of kids. Activities that have a large number of students provide a justification for when people decide to vote for their king and queen. This gets extra interesting when there are several members from the same activity on the court. This aspect is very similar to how political campaigns filter out, as groups are split. (Can you tell my dad was a government teacher?) For example this year's king candidates all play football. The cross country kids have to vote for someone as a king so they will pick a secondary set of activities to determine where they cast their vote. It comes down to a game of numbers and how teams and groups will divide their votes.
4. Younger family members in the high school: The surest way to win is having several younger siblings and cousins that are well liked within the high school. You could be a great person as a senior king or queen candidate but your bratty younger sister could bring you down. If your younger siblings also happen to get on the ballot and people see the repeated name, the older sibling is more likely to win. Whether the older king or queen candidate is even known by the younger grades doesn't matter. As long as there are multiple people with the same last name on the ballot at the same time, the older student is more likely to win.
So there you have it. You know how to be the next homecoming king or queen. Most of you have missed your opportunity to capitalize on your siblings and your own involvement :) Happy Homecoming Week!
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